


Royal Wedding

by frogs_of_war



Series: Soldiers, Knights, Wizards, and Kings [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Diplomacy, Kings & Queens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 21:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3149420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogs_of_war/pseuds/frogs_of_war
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe Eurwyn shouldn't have listened to Baven's scheme to keep from marrying the princess</p>
            </blockquote>





	Royal Wedding

"Now," Princess Chasina stroked her fan across her ample cleavage. "We have shared gossip, talked trade, and have a treaty of sorts. Gentlemen," she paused dramatically, "all we are missing is a wedding."

Eurwyn internalized his sigh. Diplomatic missions were never easy, but few were as difficult as this one to Tigrinya. Eurwyn understood men. He knew what to say to get them to do what he wanted, to say what he wanted, and if the occasion warranted, he knew what would distract them for a moment or an entire evening. Women, though, they were as foreign as the men who lived upon the ice in the far north. No, they were more alien, for men were men everywhere. Princess Chasina was a different breed entirely.

She was smart and strong and beautiful, queen in all but name, ruling without question in her father's stead as he recovered from a long illness. The most a husband could hope for was Prince Consort and the second prince of Brythonan wanted that spot. None of Eurwyn's party was allowed to take her hand; a sea port for their landlocked country hung in the balance.

King Rhodi had chosen the party with care. All the men were happily wed save Eurwyn and Bevan. Eurwyn's disinterest in woman concerned his liege, but King Rhodi was enough of a leader to make use of it. Bevan was the opposite. Women swooned as he passed and his bed was never empty. Perhaps the king thought that a man who had mastered so many women could not be influenced by one.

Bevan laughed. "And whose wedding might that be, Your Highness?"

"Mine, of course." Her glance at Eurwyn chilled his bones. "Or do you think me too young?"

Bevan bowed. "A woman is as just old as she feels."

"Truly?"

"Of course."

"Oh." The princess waved her fan. "I quite like you."

Bevan bowed again. "As you have said before."

"But," the princess snapped her fan closed. "Your stolid friend here is much more to my liking."

Eurwyn gut clinched. A sea port. Anything to get Cadfan a sea port. "Thank you for your praise, Your Highness, but I am afraid my heart belongs to another."

"But you are not wed."

"No, Your Highness."

"So you are free."

"My heart is not."

"Shame on you, then for not marrying your heart's desire while you had the chance."

"Forgive me, Your Highness," Eurwyn bowed, his hand over his heart, "but no chance was given for I love one who I cannot marry."

"Ooh." The princess opened her fan and cooled her face. She closed it and leaned forward until the end pressed into her soft flesh. "Do tell."

"I will not bring shame upon the one I love by speaking the name."

"But surely you can tell me. We are all friends here, are we not?"

That was the problem. Eurwyn would have to go home with these men and once he'd said a name, no matter how discrete he was in his lovers, they would still wonder if he was a deviant. Which was, of course, the truth. "I'm sorry, Your Highness."

"I say she does not exist." The princess leaned back in the throne, narrowing her eyes. "You do not want to treat with me."

"Your Highness," Bevan said smoothly and exactly on cue. "Sir Eurwyn is too honorable a man to sully his lover's name."

"And you?" The princess raised her brows. "Are you too honorable?"

Bevan laughed. "I have sullied that name often in my life for Eurwyn's lover is no other than your humble servant."

Gasps filled the room. Most from Eurwyn's own party. Eurwyn forced himself to relax even as his future passed before his eyes. Everything was going exactly according to Bevan's plan, which had seemed so sound under the cover of darkness. Eurwyn was in love with Bevan and had been for years with no hopes of those feelings ever being returned, but when they'd arrived in Tiginya, Bevan had asked him to pretend to be lovers. All the looks and secret meets and the hours they spend in Eurwyn's bed with the drapes drawn would be seen as lovers trysting rather than plotting and planning. And so far Bevan had been too much of a gentleman to comment when they both woke on his pillow.

"Your reputation says otherwise."

"Then I have hidden my heart from the world better than I hoped." Bevan turned to Eurwyn wearing the grin that burned Eurwyn from the inside out.

"Oh," Princess Chasina's eyes widened. "Oh, then you must be married here. A big wedding with feasting until dawn."

She leaned back in her throne with a smirk. "But not for you two of course."

"My—Your Highness," Merric gave an unsteady bow. "Men of Cadfan are not allowed to wed. Even to know a man in such a way is a hanging offense."

That was the written law, but no man had hanged for it in three hundred years.

"So," Princess Chasina pressed her fan over her heart, "I have sent these two fine men to the gallows? Then let me make it up to them. Sir Eurwyn and Sir Bevan, let me welcome you as sons of Tigrinya and smooth your transition into your new home, since you cannot return to your old."

Eurwyn was numb. Was Bevan wrong? What if the king refused to repeal the law? Being forever exiled from the land of his birth had not been part of the plan. Had he been manipulated by Bevan's warm glances and the scent of his skin on Eurwyn's sheets?

"But Your Highness," Merric said. "We cannot leave them here. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation."

"Either they tell the truth and so cannot go home until their king repeals the old laws or they lie, which I may take as an act of war."

"Oh, Your Highness," said Bevan before anyone else could speak. "I do not lie. Have you own maids not told you that I share Sir Eurwyn's bed? I would give you further proof if it is your will."

"It is."

Bevan turned to Eurwyn. They were of a height so only the slightest tilting of their heads was needed for their lips to meet. Eurwyn opened his mouth and let Bevan's tongue enter. He tasted better than any man Eurwyn had ever had, better than even his dreams. Eurwyn dug his fingers into Bevan's hair, so that he might better drink of him. Maybe life outside of Cadfan but inside Bevan's arms wouldn't be so bad after all.

The princess clapped. Eurwyn released his hold and stepped away. Bevan looked thoroughly aroused, more so than when he played with a woman. But that might be just Eurwyn's wishful thinking.

"Compliments, Sir Bevan, on getting your man to show some emotion," said Princess Chasina. "The wedding will be a fortnight hence. It would be sooner but, alas, these things take time to plan. Sir Merric, tell dear Rhodi that he may have these two back when his country is safe for them."

Bevan's fingers brushed Eurwyn's. "I won't mind if he never does."

This was Bevan's plan all along. Eurwyn should be angry that Bevan had exposed his secret and cost him his home. And he might be, later. But right now he was looking for an entirely different kind of satisfaction. He stroked his fingers against Bevan's palm, waiting for the perfect time for them to slip away.

 

 


End file.
